Chapter 7: The Ingredients
A week and a half passed after the Hogsmeade trip, before Tonks thought about the potion again. And that was when she realized she could make the potion and give it to Remus secretly. After he took it there would be nothing he could do to undo it. Now the only problem would be getting all the ingredients. The first one was the phoenix teardrops. Well, the good news was Tonks knew where to find a phoenix, Dumbledore's office. Unfortunately, she still did not know how to get tears from Fawks, but she knew someone who would.
"Hey, Lily!" Tonks called as she sat down next to Lily in the Gryffindor common room.
Lily looked up as the younger girl plopped down on the couch next to her. "Hi, Tonks, what's up?"
"I was wondering, um, do you know," she lowered her voice, "how to get tears from a phoenix?"
Lily looked confused, "Um, yeah. I guess, but why do you need to know?"
"I need it for research. I'm working on a potions assignment."
Lily just nodded, "Well, phoenix tears can heal, so I guess if you got injured, a phoenix would use its tears to heal you."
Tonks smiled, "Great! Thanks so much Lily." Then before Lily could say anything else, she jumped up off the couch and exited the common room to go make her plan.
Tonks had figured out her plan, and now all that was left was to put it into action. First she needed to get sent to Dumbledore's office. As she sat in Transfiguration class, she folded a piece of paper into a paper airplane, then pulled out her wand and began flying it around her desk. McGonagall didn't notice it though. And that was when Tonks knew she'd have to cause more of a disturbance; so she began making it fly all over the classroom.
"Miss Tonks, I suggest you stop causing a disruption." McGonagall told her sternly, "Five points from Hufflepuff." Then Tonks watched as she disintegrated the paper airplane.
Tonks smirked and began folding another piece of paper. "Wingardium Leviosa," she muttered and her second plane began its expedition of the classroom.
"Miss Tonks, headmaster's office. Now."
Tonks smiled and gathered her things before marching out of the classroom.
"That was easier than I expected." she said to herself as she walked to the office.
Soon she was knocking on the headmaster's door. "Come in." he called.
Tonks pushed open the door, "Wotcher!" she exclaimed.
Dumbledore smiled at her. He was almost as used to seeing her up here as he was the marauders, and while he could not encourage their behavior he had to admit they were some of his favorite students.
"What may I ask did you do this time?" he asked.
Tonks plopped down into the chair opposite his desk, "I was flying a paper plane around Transfiguration."
Dumbledore nodded.
"And then when Professor McGonagall destroyed that one, I made another." Tonks saw a small twinkle in the old man's blue eyes, "Very well. I'll leave you to think about your actions and I'll be back in a few minutes." he said before standing and exiting the room.
Tonks smiled, then glanced over across the room where Fawks was perched on his stand. She reached out and grabbed a piece of paper from Dumbledore's desk and slit her finger.
"Ow." she muttered. She stood up and approached Fawks. "Can you help me out here?" she asked.
Fawks willingly leaned over her hand and cried a few tears onto her hand. Tonks caught the first bunch in a small vial before allowing the rest to heal her paper cut.
"Thanks!" she told Fawks before heading for the door to the office. But as she opened the door, she heard a voice.
"Miss Tonks, I suggest you be careful with whatever you're planning. Remember that even the best plans with the best intention can fail."
Tonks glanced at the headmaster. How did he always know?
"Oh and Miss Tonks, ten points from Hufflepuff."
Tonks silently cursed the old man as she walked down the stairs leaving his office.
Of the remaining ingredients, Tonks knew where she could find two of them easily. She knew James and Sirius had a secret stash of floo powder for "emergencies"; and she had her own stash of Honeydukes' chocolate. Those were the easy ones to get.
After that, she looked at her list of ingredients again. She noticed that she still needed:
"Dew from the morning after the full moon collected before the sun rises," she read, then she looked at her calendar, "Well, looks like the full moon is in three days, so I guess I'll just get it then."
In the mean time, Tonks decided to borrow some crushed aconite from Professor Slughorn's potion's store room. So the next day, during potions class, she spent longer than usual searching for her potions ingredients. And as luck would have it, when she spotted the crushed aconite, it was on the very top shelf.
"Darn it!" she muttered, as she pulled out her wand. "Wingardium leviosa." she tried to levitate the jar down from the top shelf, but only proceeded to knock three more jars off the shelf.
"Miss Tonks!" Slughorn exclaimed upon looking into the store room. He quickly cleaned up the broken jars.
Tonks turned to Slughorn, "I'll clean up the ingredients," she told him.
Slughorn just nodded, and exited the room.
Tonks sighed and began gathering up the crushed aconite. She put it into a small ouch she had in her pocket before cleaning up the rest of the ingredients.
"One more down, only five left to go." she said as she exited the store room and headed back to her desk.
Finally it was the night of the full moon. All night, Tonks could heard Remus howling, and it had made her grateful to think that this was the last night for a while he would have to deal with this. She reached over and set her alarm for four-thirty in the morning, she just hoped she would be able to wake up.
"Beep! Beep!" Tonks rolled over and smacked her alarm clocks snooze button before falling back asleep. Finally, around five-thirty, after several more snoozes, Tonks woke up; remembering her plan.
"Ah!" she squealed, as she jumped out of bed. She grabbed her jumper and pulled it on over her pajamas before running out of her dormitory and heading down to the entrance hall. She was grateful that the whole time, she only once had to duck behind a tapestry to avoid Peeves. Quickly enough, she made it outside and into the early morning air. She hurried over across the grounds to a tree. She noticed the beginnings of the rising sun on the horizon.
"Come on," she muttered, as she began shaking dew drops off of leaves into a dish. "Hurry up!"
Tonks let out a breath of relief as her dish finished filling. "Thank Merlin."
"Students shouldn't be out of bed at this hour."
Tonks spun around to see Mr. Filch.
She smiled sweetly, "Technically, we're just not to be allowed out at night, it is really morning, so I'll be seeing you." She started off towards the school, but Filch grabbed her arm.
"Not so fast!" he cried.
"Argus," both looked up to see Dumbledore, "I'll take Miss Tonks from here."
Filch let go of Tonks and stormed off back to the castle. Tonks turned to Dumbledore. "Thank you, sir." she told him.
Dumbledore just nodded and gave her a wink.
She waved and headed back towards the castle.
"Be careful, Nymphadora. As we both know, dangerous creatures roam the grounds before sunrise."
She glanced back at her headmaster, but he was already beginning to stroll around the lake. She shook her head. Dumbledore said the strangest things sometimes.
The next week, Tonks decided she had waited long enough before another excursion not to attract too much attention. So after classes one day, she sneaked outside to the Forbidden Forest. The only things left on her list were blood from both her and Remus, the silver, and a centaur tail hair. And today she was after the tail hair. She just hoped she wouldn't get caught going in the forest. She headed inside, and made sure to keep her wand at the ready, just in case. She had been walking for less than five minutes, when she tripped the first time and wound up with scrapes across both hands.
She made sure as she walked, to check every bush and tree for any hairs that might have gotten caught. But after half an hour, she had still found nothing.
Which is why she considered herself blessed, when Hagrid found her.
"Tonks, what're you doin' out here?" he asked.
Tonks shrugged, "I was just looking for something." then she looked up at Hagrid, "Do you think you could help me find something?" she asked.
Hagrid sighed, "Well now, I don't know that I should be. Students aren't supposed to be out in the forest," he answered.
"Please, Hagrid, it's really important. I just need a centaur tail hair." she begged.
Hagrid's face broke into a grin. "Why I got that back in my house."
Tonks smiled back. "Thanks!"
Tonks was grateful to have most of her ingredients so quickly, but she only had two and a half weeks left before the next full moon. She still had to find the silver before she could even begin brewing the potion. Then she wouldn't need to collect the blood until the day before she gave Remus the potion. She had already planned to give the potion to him three days before the next full moon, so that he wouldn't have to deal with the before affects, the full moon, or the after affects thereof.
Tonks had already figured out that the best place to get silver from would be the kitchens. She sneaked down to the kitchens, in between her classes, and entered quietly. The house elves were rushing around preparing dinner for that night, when one of them spotted Tonks. He immediately stopped and approached the girl, and bowed.
"What can we do for you, Miss?" he asked in a squeaky voice.
Tonks couldn't help but smile, she had always thought they were kind of cute. Most of them anyway. "I need a bunch of silverware. As much as you can spare."
The house elf rushed off and Tonks waited. After a few minutes and lots of crashes, the first house elf and another returned with a tray of silverware between them.
"Is this enough, Miss?" he asked.
Tonks nodded. "That's plenty. Thanks so much!" Then she turned and left the kitchens. She was so excited. She had managed to collect all of the ingredients and hardly get into any trouble. That was until she ran into the headmaster again.
All of the silverware tumbled to the floor. Tonks dove down and began collecting it. She was more surprised though when Dumbledore bent down to help her. "Are you planning a party, Miss Tonks?" he asked.
Tonks blushed. "Um, not really. I just, um, needed it for an experiment."
Dumbledore helped her back to her feet. "Very well then, if you are sure." and then he walked away, leaving a very confused Nymphadora Tonks standing in the middle of the hall holding a tray of stolen silverware.
A/N: Hey so I'm sorry if this chapter was a little choppy. I had some trouble with it, but the story is about to get rolling in the next chapter! I am super excited, and I hope you are too! Enjoy!
